ZHU, YUXIANG

My Name is Yuxiang Zhu (朱宇翔), and please feel free to call me Rex or Zhu Laoshi. This year, I will be the Chinese Immersion kindergarten teacher at Madison Elementary. I have graduated with my Master’s and Bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, major in Early Childhood Education and Early Childhood Special Education.

I have student taught in many schools including Countryside School, Mothers’ Morning Out, Booker T. Washington STEM Academy, and Urbana Early Childhood School in Illinois. Many of which have students with diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Aside from student teaching in public schools, I have also tutored local elementary school students Chinese at the Chinese Heritage Association in Champaign for four years. The curriculum we used was designed by Dr. Liping Ma (马丽萍), and I learned a great deal about teaching reading, writing, and speaking Chinese to students with little experience with the language.

I am from Shanghai, China, and my first language is Mandarin Chinese. I moved to the States seven years ago to attend the University of Illinois shortly after my international student exchange program to Oslo, Norway. I spent most of my childhood performing on stage and exploring in the world of theater. In my spare time, I love watching movies and musicals. Sound of Music is one of my favorite pictures for all time (others include Cats, Le Miserables, Rent, and most recently, Hamilton).

If there is any concern or question that you want to talk about, please do not hesitate to contact me through email (and I will get back to you as soon as possible). I would be thrilled to meet and greet you in school. I look forward to the months and years ahead helping your child to learn Chinese. I sincerely hope that my teaching would bring you and your children a great memory as well as furthering my profession as a teacher.